Prince's death: Key players in investigation and aftermath

Two years after pop icon Prince died of an overdose, prosecutors said Thursday they would not file any criminal charges and announced a settlement with a United States doctor who prescribed powerful painkillers for the star.

August 21 - An official close to the investigation tells the AP that some of the pills taken from Paisley Park were counterfeit drugs that contained fentanyl.

Carver County Attorney Mark Metz scheduled a news conference for Thursday morning in Chaska to announce a decision, the county attorney's office said in a brief statement Wednesday.

The news comes as the Minnesota doctor who prescribed opioid painkillers to Prince a week before the musician died has agreed to pay out $30,000 Dollars settlement over a federal civil violation.

"There is no reliable evidence showing how Prince obtained the counterfeit vicodin laced with fentanyl or who else may had a role in delivering the counterfeit vicodin to Prince", Metz said.

Schulenberg had prescribed the Percocet to Prince's bodyguard, Kirk Johnson, as a cover for Prince.

April 14 - Schulenberg allegedly wrote out a prescription for the opioid oxycodone in the name of Prince's friend, Kirk Johnson, with the intention that the drug go to Prince, according to a search warrant.

"There is no evidence that the pill or pills that actually killed Prince were prescribed by a doctor", he said.

In his death, Prince became the most famous face of the epidemic of painkiller abuse in the United States.

The singer, 57, died from an accidental overdose of the painkiller fentanyl, an opioid many times more powerful than heroin. One previous collaborator released a song, "Deliverance", he had recorded with Prince about 10 years ago, prompting court action against the engineer, George Ian Boxill, who had released it.

April 20 - Dr. Howard Kornfeld, a California addiction specialist, is asked by Prince representatives to help the star.

Authorities found a "significant number" of pain pills hidden all over Paisley Park in bottles other than their original pharmacy containers, Metz confirmed. The singer was found unconscious at his Minnesota home on April 21, 2016. He said that all of the prescriptions were made out in Johnson's name in order to protect Prince's privacy.

The announcement comes just two days before the two-year anniversary of Prince's death on April 21.

Federal prosecutors and the Drug Enforcement Administration had opened an investigation into how Prince obtained the prescription medication, the agencies have said.

"Dr. Schulenberg has been and remains committed to providing full transparency regarding his practice as it relates to the Prince investigation", Amy S. Conners, a lawyer representing Schulenberg, said.

Oxycodone, the generic name for the active ingredient in OxyContin, was not listed as a cause of Prince's death. But the documents don't reveal the big missing piece in the criminal investigation: Where did Prince get the fentanyl that killed him?

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